


This

by Temporaryblissx



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Robots & Androids, Android AU, F/M, Harry is an android, Liam is the CEO, Niall is the lead roboticist, Zayn is the designer
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-23
Updated: 2015-05-23
Packaged: 2018-03-31 19:15:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3989572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Temporaryblissx/pseuds/Temporaryblissx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She thought it would be just another job.<br/>She wasn't prepared for what she got instead.</p><p> </p><p>  <i>This is the start of something new.</i><br/><i>You are the one who'd make me lose it all.</i><br/><i>You are the start of something new.</i></p><p> </p><p>  <i>And I'll throw it all away.</i><br/><i>And watch you fall into my arms again.</i><br/><i>And I'll throw it all away.</i><br/><i>Watch you fall, now.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	This

“Maybe you’re being fired.”

Kate let out a tiny groan as she dropped her head onto the table She wasn’t exactly sure what she did, actually, she didn’t know at all, but for some reason, Liam Payne had asked for her by name and requested that she be at his office in half an hour. She wasn’t even aware that Liam Payne knew she existed, let alone wanted to speak to her personally. Maybe Perrie was right, maybe she was being fired. Now that she thought about it, she had stolen one or a dozen company pens over the past year. Oh God, they probably caught her on camera.

“Perrie, I can’t get fired. If I do, I’m going to have to move back in with my parents, and there’s no way in Hell I’m moving back to Belfast. The place is a proper nightmare.”

Perrie pulled her blue eyes away from the forms she was typing on the computer and bit her lip as she wracked through her brain for a possible answer. “Honestly, I can’t think of why Liam would want to see you. All we do is handle paper work and contact buyers.”

Kate didn’t have much time to give it any more thought because with a glance down to the watch on her small wrist, she realized she was due upstairs in a couple of minutes. She suppressed a loud sigh and stood up, dusting off the imaginary dirt from her outfit before glancing over to Perrie. “Wish me luck?”

Perrie gave her a small smile, pushing some of her blonde hair behind her hair. “Oh definitely, good luck, You’ll need it babe. Send me a heads up if you’re fired. That means I’m close behind.”

Kate knew that she was joking, trying to lighten the mood, but the words only rang in her ears and made the heavy feeling in her stomach even worse. She gave one final glance around to her desk, looking for nothing in particular before turning on her heels and heading towards the pair of elevators.

She pushed the button to go up and once again found herself searching through her mind for all of the potential reasons that she could be getting called upstairs. Being fired seemed to be the only plausible explanation, but even then, wouldn’t someone like the floor manager be the one to let her go? Liam Payne was a busy man; he didn’t deal with such miniscule things like that.

“Kate, are you heading home already?”

Kate pulled herself out of her thoughts and glance to her right to see George Shelley, one of the guys who she worked with. He was looking at her worriedly, trying to see if she looked sick or not, but she merely forced a small smile on her face and shook her head. The elevator dinged and opened its doors to her. “Mr. Payne has asked to see me.”

Kate didn’t miss the look of absolute horror on his face as she stepped inside the elevator and the doors closed momentarily, leaving her alone, and more worked up than she was before.

Once the elevator doors opened up to the top floor of the building, she slowly stepped out and smoothed out her outfit once more before slowly dragging her body towards the small desk where one of Payne Enterprise’s creations was typing away on the computer. Artificial blue eyes peered up when she was only a couple of feet away from the desk. “How can I help you?” the smooth voice asked as he stopped typing and tilted his head to the side slightly.

Kate swallowed harshly, feeling like she was about to throw up. There was no turning back now, she was feet away from his office and he was about to fire her. “I’m here to see Mr. Payne, he sent for me.” her voice was shaky as she spoke, but the assistant paid no notice to it.

A smile slowly made its way onto his face as he glanced down at the sticky note stuck to the bottom of the keyboard he’d previously been typing on. “Kate Reed?” he questioned.

“Yes.” She cleared her throat, her voice catching, before continuing. “That’s me.”

He gave a nod before pushing his chair back and standing up. “I’ll tell him you’re here.” And with that, he turned his back and began the small walk down to the end of the room where a pair of double doors sat. He knocked softly before a muffled ‘come in’ sounded. He slipped inside and Kate was unable to make out the muffled conversation. She peered around the large room for a few moments, willing herself to calm down, even if just a little bit. The last thing she needed to do when she met Liam Payne for the first time, no matter the reason, was throw up on his shoes. Because even if the intent wasn’t to fire her in the first place, the vomiting would lead to a new turn of events.

“Mr. Payne will see you now.”

Kate slightly jumped, caught off guard. She hadn’t heard him coming back, but then again, she was far too lost in her thoughts to pay much attention to anything. She stood up then, bringing a hand up to her red hair and ensuring it was still perfectly held back by the hair tie before following behind the assistant towards the office doors.

He gave another knock before pushing open the door and stepping inside, holding it open for Kate. She slipped in behind him and tried to hold her breath inconspicuously as her eyes landed on Liam Payne. He was sat at his desk, eyes scanning over some documents as his fingers tapped on the wood. His sandy brown hair was perfectly styled into a quiff and his choice of slacks and button up did wonders for his body. He had to have a personal stylist. He glanced up a moment later, his soft brown eyes meeting hers and she decided that if she did end up getting fired, maybe there was still hope for her applying to be his sugar baby. She instantly shook the inappropriate thought away.

“Thank you, Louis.” Liam gave a small nod, and with that Louis was giving a smile and nod of his own before turning and closing the door behind him, leaving the two on their own.

Liam grinned and motioned for the chairs in front of his desk. “Ms. Katherine Reed, please have a seat.”

She tried to ignore the fact that she was so excited and pleased that he didn’t even need to look down at a sheet to recall her name; he could’ve just heard it from Louis when he came in a few moments ago, but Kate would much rather tell herself that he knew it. She quickly hurried forward and melted into the seat on the left.

“It’s good to meet you Ms. Reed. I’ve heard a lot about you.” Kate couldn’t suppress the small frown that settled on her features as she let his words sink in. How would he have ever heard about her?

“You have?” she asked, confusion both evident in her voice and expression. Liam only nodded and smiled.

“Do you know why I’ve called you up here, Ms. Reed?” Liam questioned as he pushed all of the papers on his desk into a pile and slid them to the edge of his desk.

“No sir.” She shook her head and brought her hands into her lap where she twisted them tightly together.

“Our lead roboticist Niall Horan speaks very highly of you.” Liam responded with a small smile on his lips. At the mention of someone praising her, Kate dropped her head in embarrassment, her cheeks a deep pink.

She’d had the pleasure of meeting Niall one afternoon a couple of months ago when they were both in the lounge area eating their lunch. He was seated at the only free table, his face shoved into a manila folder and Kate figured it couldn’t be that bad to share with him. It turned out that he wasn’t only a complete gentleman with humor, but he was also the lead roboticist. After finding out that little detail, she was instantly hooked and from that day on, the two would meet every afternoon and eat lunch together.

“I’m not sure if you’re aware, but Niall’s been working on a new prototype for us for a while.” Kate only nodded along in agreement. “His team just finished wrapping it up a couple of nights ago and now it’s ready to be integrated into every day life.” Kate nodded again, but was still at an absolute loss as to why she’d been called upstairs.

“We usually just have one of the roboticists take the prototypes home and help with their progress until they’re ready to be brought back and mass produced to commercially sell.” Liam reached for one of the papers he had stacked at the edge of the table and scanned over it quickly. “However, Niall ultimately insisted that we hand over the responsibility to you.”

Kate swore that her heart stopped momentarily before starting back up in a frenzy. Why would Niall do that? Why would he give her such a powerful and important job? “Sir, I don’t think I’m qualified, I would hate to ruin-“

“Are you interested in robotics like Niall says you are?” Liam cut in with an eyebrow raised and an inquisitive expression.

“Yes sir, but-“

“Would you like to help this company by doing some research?”

“Of course I would sir, it’s just-“

“Then there shouldn’t be a problem, Ms. Reed.” Liam seemed to end the discussion then and there. “Usually I wouldn’t even think of giving the task to anyone other than the team, but Niall is a very important piece of this company, and he didn’t just suggest it, he was extremely adamant about it all; to the point where refusal to allow you to take the prototype would result in him ceasing continuation in the project, and we can’t have that.”

Kate opened her mouth to protest once more but before she could get a word out, Liam was holding up his hand to silence her. The words died in her throat.

“Ms. Reed. I have built this enterprise from absolute scratch and watched it raise to unimaginable heights. It’s 2058, I’m twenty nine years old, and I am the head of the leading robotics company in the world. No one else even comes close to the work we do here, and I’m extremely proud of everything we’ve put out. We’re to the point that by 2065, I doubt that there won’t be a Liam Payne Enterprise android in every home. We’ve created the perfect companions, the perfect protectors, and even the perfect employees. We’ve nearly perfected the art.”

Liam stood up from his chair and slowly walked around the desk and over to where the door was a few feet away. He pulled it open and peered out, watching as Louis peered up from his computer at the sound. He smiled softly as he noticed Liam watching him and gave him a small nod before returning to his work. “I mean, look at Louis. There isn’t one thing about him that gives away the fact that he’s an android, apart from the fact that he doesn’t whine and complain about his feet hurting after a couple of hours at the office.” Liam mused, referring to the previous secretary he had stationed outside. “Louis’ the perfect worker, you don’t even have to pay him, just have to recharge him at night, he’s one of our top selling models, actually.”

Liam closed the door softly and strolled back to his desk before taking a seat. “We have extremely high hopes for this newest prototype. While the others have previously been focused on individual jobs such as companions, employees, and protectors, like I said before, this one, this one is what brings this enterprise to a new level.”

Liam reached for one of the manila folders on his desk and slid it across to Kate. He opened it up and allowed her to glance at the statistics of the android model. “Meet Android model H1949740, or for all intents and purposes, Harry.”

“The perfect lover.” She murmured as her eyes scanned across the type line.

“Exactly.” Liam said with a nod. “He’s the last step in our progress. He’s what the public’s been waiting for since we first started creating androids. Since the beginning, every company’s come out with their own version, but each time, they’ve hardly come up to par. Their vocal cord abilities are barely above that of a basic computer; their responses are limited to computerized moans and pants. Their only function and purpose is to be fucked. They’re undeveloped; they’re reminiscent of the first androids and they only serve to prove that they’re obsolete.”

“Harry is going to mark the beginning of a new era for androids. In the past, it’s always been about pleasuring and pleasing the men; that much is clear in their designs and abilities; Harry is unprecedented because he’s all about pleasuring the woman, and not just for a simple fuck. He can hold a conversation with her, comfort her, be everything she ever wanted in a man. Harry is going to ensure that we not only scoop up the rest of the demographics we weren’t reaching before; he’s going to ensure that we put those other companies out of business.”

Kate just sat there, trying to take in everything he was saying, trying to let it soak in and accept it, but the more he spoke, the more she felt like she was utterly underqualified to take on the task. If it was as big of a deal as it was looking like, someone who knew all about the inner workings of the android should be the one to handle it; not her.

“So you’ll do it, won’t you?” Liam’s voice cut through her thoughts. “We’ll obviously pay you generously for the time and effort spent, and if you do a good job, they’ll be a promotion in it for you.” He wagered before watching her with an expectant expression that held a hint of optimism.

All of her previous assumptions and perception about Liam were thrown out the window in that moment. He may have had puppy dog eyes and a sweet smile, but Liam Payne was cunning and knew just how to get someone to agree to something they didn’t want to do. A promotion would be more than enough to get her to accept. The apartment she was staying in now was less than satisfactory; it was barely above a health hazard. A higher paying job meant she’d be able to get out of there and get something halfway decent. And if she wasn’t working as a customer service representative, that only meant one thing; she’d have some part in robotics.

“Yes sir, I’ll do it.” she nodded with a small smile.

“Excellent.” Liam grinned, exposing a perfect row of white teeth. “Once we finish up the last bit of tests on the prototype, he’ll be delivered to your home. Expect him tomorrow morning or so. Before you leave today, Louis will send down further documents explaining how to properly care for Harry and all that. He’s pretty self-efficient, but we won’t leave you without the precautions. Louis will also leave you with a company credit card to use for anything Harry needs.”

Kate wasn’t sure what to say or how to respond, so she merely nodded and smiled along to his words. Once he seemed to finish up going through a few of the expectations for Harry, she couldn’t help but voice the question that had been burning on her tongue for the past few minutes. “I won’t have to, um-you know-“ she stumbled over her words, trying to force it out.

Liam heartily laughed as he shook his head. She felt her face heat up and the embarrassment flowed harshly through her veins. “You won’t have to worry about that. He’s come programmed with the ability and more than enough tricks to satisfy. We’re sure they’re won’t be any complaints from buyers.”

Kate just nodded, willing her embarrassment to lessen slightly and she stood up when she noticed Liam coming around to her side. He placed his hand on the small of her back as he led her to the door. “Thank you for agreeing to do this, Ms. Reed. I’m sure everything will go more than smoothly.”

Kate mumbled out a quiet goodbye before stepping out and hearing the door shut behind her. She wasn’t sure why she even halfway thought she was going to be able to do this. What if she accidentally ruined him somehow? Left him unplugged too long. Didn’t give him enough oil when he needed it. He’d be destroyed and the blame would be entirely on her. Not only would she be fired, but she’d most likely be sued for property damage as well. And she didn’t exactly have money for any kind of lawsuit.

“Have a good day, Kate.” Louis' airy voice rang in her ear as she walked past and she glanced over to see Louis smiling softly as he glanced up from his paperwork. She gave a tiny wave before hurrying to the elevators. She needed to talk to Niall.

**Author's Note:**

> I posted this story a while ago on my Mibba account and I had only written two chapters on the site. I plan to finish the story on here and hopefully you guys like it and let me know what you think!


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